"Biya is a topical example of failed leadership, with a record to match".

(Open letter to George W. Bush)

George W. Bush will travel to Africa for a short week next week. In his last year in office the trip is essentially a farewell to Africans. That notwithstanding the visit is an opportune occasion to
announce important policy initiatives by which he wants Africans to remember him. We of this newspaper plead with George Bush to use this trip to call Paul Biya’s life-presidency bluff, and save Cameroonians sure a catastrophe.

Dear President Bush,
We of this newspaper are delighted that you can find the time in this very busy last year of your administration to visit Africa as you intend to do next week.

Seeing how much you will squeeze into the visit that will last hardly a full week, we appreciate it all the more that you give our continent such priority.

Further evidence of your administration’s interest in Africa is not far to fetch. Only a week ago in your state-of-the-union speech you called for an additional $30 billion for AIDS relief in Africa. You had previously granted $15 billion for the same purpose.

We thank you, and can assure you, Mr. President, that no African, conscious of the ravage caused by this plague on this continent, is insensitive to this mighty gesture of support by your administration.

Mr. President, you know as much as we Africans do that Africa, (Sub-Saharan Africa in particular), is mired not only in disease, but also in socioeconomic problems. The continent has failed to develop, even with the huge sums of foreign aid it has received over the decades.

Failed economies and failed social systems render life short, nasty and brutish. One of the unhappy consequences of this is the surge in economic migration from Africa about which we know you know a lot. Almost wholly responsible for this failure is leadership begets faulty political systems that are in turn manipulated to reinforce faulty leadership.

Dear President Bush, it is on account of the failed leadership in Cameroon and Cameroon’s grossly disappointing failure to develop that we address your good self this letter on the occasion of your coming trip to Africa. We are also publishing it in our newspaper because it is a matter of great public interest.

Specifically, we wish to draw your attention to an unfolding political tragedy. It is now official.
President Paul Biya wants to revise the constitution that limits him to two terms in office, the second of which ends in 2011, so that he may continue in office after that date.

This is a manipulation and a violation of the people’s right to change their leaders. Cameroonians are overwhelmingly outraged by this (A very recent Gallup poll puts at a staggering 84% the public opinion rating of president Biya).

Regrettably, Cameroonians by themselves are unable to stop president Biya in his strides. The opposition is weak, disorganized and helpless. The church once had a voice which it since lost in its policy of complacency with the regime.

The national assembly that will pass the amendment bill is itself a house whose members are hand picked by the directives of Biya himself. In one working day the amendment job would be done!

Mindful of their powerlessness Cameroonians have learnt to trust in the helpful intervention of their foreign partners and the International community as a whole whose assistance has often proved critical for the continued viability of the government.

No doubt the US takes as centre stage in this. Cameroonians know that American leadership in International affairs is essential to the cause of human rights and freedom. We doff our unflinching pursuit of these democratic values around the world.

Dear President, we recall with much delight that your administration vehemently opposed a similar development with the Obasanjo government in Nigeria not very long ago. Thanks to that position by the US government many state assemblies in turn opposed and killed the idea.

It is with pleasure that we also remember Niels Marquardt, the US ambassador who was posted from Cameroon last year July. Marquardt was an admirable diplomat and a man of great character. He has a profound understanding of the democratic yearning and aspirations of Cameroonians and often found the courage to speak his mind when Yaounde authorities
violated fundamental principles.

Marquardt gave heart to Cameroonians in the face of the high handedness of the self seeking regime in Yaounde. On the issue of the constitution to remove term-limits he spoke bodily and unequivocally. “We said no to it in Nigeria, we cannot accept it here”.

After what is happening in Kenya and now in next-door Chad Republic, even as we write this, Cameroonians are all the more anxious about the future of this country should Paul Biya proceed, as he appears determined to do, to keep himself in power beyond 2011.

Dear president Bush, on this occasion of your coming trip to Africa, we consider it most opportune to plead with you to summon Paul Biya and firmly call off his proposed plan whose end would only harm Cameroon.

That will be a sure favour that generation of Cameroonians will remember you for. Do not, please Mr President; fail to deliver Cameroonians from the tyranny of a small African despot whose un-progressive policies have rendered a much endowed country a poverty-stricken banana republic.

We are confident that your successor at the white house wouldn’t for anything be tempted to reverse your opposition to Biya’s life presidency megalomania, Biya is a topical example of failed leadership, with a record to match.

All international watchdogs, without exception, rank Cameroon among the poorest of the poor performers viz; Transparency International on corruption; Mo-lbrahim foundation on good governance; world bank business environment survey; UNDP human development report;
Human Rights watch; US Congress report, etc.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ranks Cameroon among 35 most “failing” states out of 177 countries examined. Due to its low performance rating Cameroon has not yet qualified to receive free monetary assistance from the Millennium challenge account thoughtfully, helpfully, provided by your administration.

Neither has Cameroon also been able to benefit from AGOA, the Africa growth Opportunity Act, put in place by the Clinton government to promote non-tariff export trade with the US.
What is blindingly conspicuous in looking down Paul Biya’s twenty-five unbroken years in office is the total absence of a development will.

Just imagine Mr. President all the many strong factors in favour of development. Twenty-five years in office (an eternity for an American president?), the absence of civil strife, the many natural resource of Cameroon viz; crude oil; timber, cash crops (cocoa, coffee, banana) and fertile agricultural soil across most of the country, hard-working people and well-trained manpower; all combine to point to leadership as the absent critical component in the way
of development.

It is for this reason that all true friends of Cameroon and those who care about the development of Africa must summon the courage to tell Paul Biya to retire in 2011 so that Cameroonians may be free to elect their next ruler.

President Bush, we trust you for speaking your mind and having the courage to do so. Thank you for rendering Cameroonians this favour. We love you.

Yours truly
Boniface Forbin
Publisher/Editor
The Herald Newspaper